key: cord-1028164-vyt63hnx authors: Tian, Yuan; Rong, Long title: Letter: role of probiotics in the COVID‐19 pandemic—authors' reply date: 2020-08-14 journal: Aliment Pharmacol Ther DOI: 10.1111/apt.15931 sha: 111ec58d577406d95048a4aa5503c832936bb843 doc_id: 1028164 cord_uid: vyt63hnx LINKED CONTENT This article is linked to Tian et al and Aguila et al papers. To view these articles, visit https://doi.org/10.1111/apt.15731 and https://doi.org/10.1111/apt.15898 We read with great interest the review of our article by Dr Aguila and colleagues. 1 We are grateful for their comments. Probiotics have been a hot and controversial topic in recent years. We agree that probiotics may be potentially helpful in the treatment of patients with severe COVID-19, but there is a lack of evidence to demonstrate the effect of probiotics directly inhibiting SARS-CoV-2 infection. In the early days of the outbreak, antibiotics were commonly Many studies have demonstrated the pathogenic links between microbiota and the gut-lung axis, which is a dynamic immune balance between these two mucosal sites. A respiratory pathogen may cause gut and lung dysbiosis as well as altered leucocyte level and activation disorders. 4 Reintroduction of probiotics promotes the release of short chain fatty acids from microbiota 5 or cytokines and chemokines from the lungs or gut of the host, 6 The authors' declarations of personal and financial interests are unchanged from those in the original article. 10 Letter: role of probiotics in the COVID-19 pandemic Bacterial and fungal co-infection in individuals with coronavirus: a rapid review to support COVID-19 antimicrobial prescribing Alterations in gut microbiota of patients With COVID-19 during time of hospitalization Emerging pathogenic links between microbiota and the gut-lung axis Regulation of lung immunity and host defense by the intestinal microbiota AP&T correspondence columns are restricted to letters discussing papers that have been published in the journal. A letter must have a maximum of 500 words, may contain one table or figure, and should have no more than 10 references. It should be submitted The gut microbiota plays a protective role in the host defence against pneumococcal pneumonia National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China Probiotic and synbiotic therapy in critical illness: a systematic review and meta-analysis Management of corona virus disease-19 (COVID-19): the Zhejiang experience. Zhejiang Da Xue Xue Bao Yi Xue Ban Review article: gastrointestinal features in COVID-19 and the possibility of faecal transmission